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2002 – 2006
Computer technology helps engineers and designers master
40 percent slope
Jim Sell Design team creates wetlands habitat for Crested Butte’s Reserve on the East River
Crested Butte, Colorado – What happens when you move a million cubic yards of earth? When you’re in capable hands, you can create a sanctuary.
And that’s just what the Jim Sell Design, Inc., team did for The Reserve on the East River, an exclusive 1500-acre residential development near Crested Butte, Colorado. Because of the work the Fort Collins design firm had done on the adjacent Red Mountain Ranch project, Pinto Development, LLC, selected Jim Sell and his team to design and engineer The Reserve – a remarkable mountain and river development featuring 24 select lots.
Providing a wildlife haven
To preserve and enhance the area’s natural beauty, a million cubic yards of earth were moved to realize the Jim Sell Design team’s vision of a stellar wetlands habitat. New wetlands areas – including streams, trails, and nine fishing ponds – were created from an existing open meadow. “We diverted river water through a series of streams and drop structures,” explains Jim Sell, president and principal landscape architect at the firm. “The newly created wetlands provides improved wildlife habitat with its native trees, shrubs, grasses, and Rocky Mountain plants.”
But building a wetlands sanctuary wasn’t the only challenge facing the Jim Sell Design team. “Our biggest concern was access up a small section of the mountain’s 40 percent slope without creating a noticeable scar in the mountainside,” says Sell. To solve the problem, the team used 3-D computer modeling and mitigation with plants, grasses, and stands of aspens. In addition, the team used supplemental irrigation to ensure the trees and shrubs were well established.
Solving an up-hill challenge
The team collaborated on every facet of the project: Sell designed the road, and Project Engineer Jon Sweet engineered it. Together, they adjusted the design as needed, then Computer Simulation Specialist Todd Sell created a virtual drive-through on the road, showing every cut. “The owners could see everything we were going to do before we did it,” says Jim Sell. Then Todd used the computer to digitally replicate the existing forest – positioning 3-D building envelopes to verify that selected field locations were truly hidden by the trees.
Today, lush grass covers 30 percent of the mountain slopes, and by autumn, nearly 80 percent will be grassy. “Now, the road essentially disappears,” says Sell. “The team’s efforts made a huge difference, and the outcome is amazing.”
During 2005, all of Gunnison County recorded approximately $30 million in lot sales. The Reserve on the East River lost sales represented $19 million of that total.
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